Blogging · 6 March 2009
I fancy myself to be a human interest columnist, but I have no formal training as a journalist. I suppose that I could call myself an essayist, but the topics I write about are much too mundane for me to really be considered an essayist. I guess that what I really am is a blogger. Just a plain ole blogger.
I really should not say the word blogger in a haughty voice like it is beneath me. After all, I am just somebody who likes to write. And even though my websites have ads on them that could generate income, I can not really say that I am a professional writer yet. Not that I do not hope to be someday. Not that I do not aspire to be a creative literary force someday. For now though, I am just a wannabe. I am a blogger.
That is not to say that all bloggers are wannabes. There are professional writers who blog as well as having real jobs writing. But it seems to me that most bloggers are like me. They just like to write. Some for the sake of writing itself. Some as a form of cathartic release. Some just because they can not help but write. And some because they are perfecting their craft and creating a body of work. I fit into all of those categories at times. Currently, I probably fit most neatly into the last two categories.
My wife, the Mindboggling Mrs. Miyoshi, thinks that I am crazy. She does not understand the need to write. It is mindboggling to her that I have words in my mind that need to put on paper. That I need to write because I can not help myself. She even suggested that I spend more time editing my blogs instead of meeting my self-imposed weekly deadline. (I actually thought that was a great idea, but I could not help but go back to writing each week regardless of the quality of my writing.) In the end, I find that I write because I must.
The other reason that I write is to perfect my craft and create a significant body of work. I know that some would consider a weekly blog an insignificant body of work. Sometimes I think that myself. But I have had several of my columns/blogs published in local area newspapers. I have had a print readership and I have more regular readers than just my family and friends. I may not be the best writer, but I am putting content out to the world to see what will stick. I am developing my body of work on a consistent basis in order to perfect this craft called writing.
I really would like to consider myself a columnist. Or an essayist. I never thought that I would be a blogger, but here I am. Blogging each week for a digital audience that may or may not read me every week. I am blogging to satisfy my need to write and I am blogging to perfect my craft. I am blogging because blogging is writing. And that is what I want. To be a writer.
© 2009 Michael T. Miyoshi
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